Could The Contaminated Epidural Injections That Caused Fungal Meningitis In New Jersey And Other States Been Avoided?

In 2003, Sarah Sellers, a young pharmacist, worked in a compounding pharmacy
and was shocked by what she described as unsterile conditions. She told
a Senate Committee that “the pharmacy was purportedly making sterile
injections from scratch using non-sterile ingredients,” and “When
I asked permission to order and substitute FDA-approved products because
of safety concerns, I was cautioned that it would be less profitable for
the pharmacy.”

In 2005, Sellers began working at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
with the hopes of writing new federal sterility guidelines for compounding
pharmacies. “I expected the guidelines to come out when I was working
at the agency in 2006,” Sellers said. “But it never happened.
It was so frustrating.” More than six years later, those guidelines
still have not come out.

In 2003, the Government Accountability Office testified that the FDA knew
of at least 200 adverse events associated with drugs from compounding
pharmacies since 1990. In 2011, nine people in Alabama
died from contaminated intravenous total parenteral nutrition (TPN) manufactured at a compounding facility. Earlier this year, 33 people
developed severe fungal eye infections from eye drops made at a compounding
pharmacy in Florida. Currently, there are now 137 cases and 12 deaths due to
fungal meningitis linked to contaminated steroid injections manufactured by New England Compounding Center (NECC). The two newest
cases are in New Jersey where patients were given their epidural steroid
injections at South Jersey Healthcare.

As it stands now, the FDA does not have jurisdiction over compounding pharmacies
unless there is a problem. The FDA has been trying to change that for
over 20 years. The compounding pharmacy industry has challenged those
efforts each and every time, and courts have ruled that individual state
health departments are the ones in charge.

If someone would have listened to Sarah Sellers over the years, many people
may not have become seriously ill, blind or fatally injured due to contaminated
medications.

For over fifty years, the
Philadelphia experienced drug injury lawyers of The Beasley Firm have helped patients injured by defective products,
and have obtained over $2 billion in settlements and jury verdicts. We
can help you understand your legal rights and options. Please feel
free to contact one of our lawyers, doctors or nurses at 1.888.823.5291 for a strictly
free and confidential consultation.

Office Location

Contact Us

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Please
note: All cases are different and past results do not predict future case outcomes.

x

⚠

Your browser is out of date. To get the full experience of this website,
please update to most recent version.